NBC Pulls a HANNIBAL Episode

NBC has opted to not air episode four of HANNIBAL, a rep for the show confirms. Instead, the series will proceed with episode five and air the rest of the episodes in order from there. (Variety was the first to break the news.)

The fourth episode of the series was set to guest star Molly Shannon playing a character who brainwashed children to kill other children. Given the recent events — including the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — all involved with the show felt it was best to not air this episode now.

“I didn’t want to have anyone come to the show and have a negative experience,” HANNIBAL creator Bryan Fuller told Variety. “Whenever you [write] a story and look at the sensational aspects of storytelling, you think, ‘This is interesting metaphorically, and this is interesting as social commentary.’ With this episode, it wasn’t about the graphic imagery or violence. It was the associations that came with the subject matter that I felt would inhibit the enjoyment of the overall episode…It was my own sensitivity.”

NBC plans to package character development clips from episode four online at NBC.com, but the HANNIBAL rep says NBC won’t be airing the episode in full on any platform. However, it the episode is expected to air in other parts of the world and be included on the first season’s DVD set.

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Will you be checking out the character development scenes on NBC.com? Or will you go straight from episode three to episode five?